What Is a Micro Transaction?

Diesen Artickel einschätzenMicro transactions are popular nowadays. Find out what they are in the scope of sports games.

Sports-oriented video games have changed a lot in keeping with the improvements in game technology nowadays. After all, what was once not possible with video games before is now achievable today, like purchasing additional content for your video games.

In the old days, one can only wish for additional content and wait for the next title in the franchise to come in. That’s no longer true nowadays – video game developers have progressed far and wide in their trade and, thanks to the Internet, can now introduce changes to a game through the simple act of applying an update through a patch.

Not all of these updates are for free, though. There are additional content that you can add to a sports game but you have to get these for a certain price. That is where micro transactions comes in.

What is microtransaction? Simply put, it’s a new business model that deals with the system of purchasing in-game content in small amounts using real and virtual currency. The concept first had its roots in “free to play” online games like the ones you find in Facebook, like Baseball Heroes and United Eleven.

However, nowadays the practice has started to spread to full-sized video games, particularly sports titles like FIFA15 and others.

The main source of funding for micro transactions is the virtual currency, a term that applies to currencies that are generated by certain actions within the game. Achievements like gaining a new record time in a racing game, for instance, can unlock in-game cash that is added to the player’s reserves. Similarly, certain actions like purchasing uniforms for teams or recruiting a new team member from a draft can cause reductions in the player’s in-game purse.

So, to summarize, if you’re playing a sports game that allows you to simulate the experience of being a General Manager, micro transactions make it possible for you to manage and generate funds for your team. You can use virtual currencies in these transactions most of the times, but sometimes you may have to reach into your pocket and expend real cash to unlock some goodies in a game.

These are often called premium items. In a way, the items that have to be purchased using real cash in some games are exclusive and they come with excellent stats that can boost your performance in a game. They could require expenditures of a hefty amount of cash, although some purchases are manageable by average people’s standards.

Transactions that involve real cash are accomplished using a fixed exchange rate between the virtual currency and real life money. For illustration purposes, a game that requires $5 for 10 VC will require cash equivalent to $50 for an item that costs 500 VC. Some games will first convert real cash to virtual currency and facilitate the purchase afterwards; others will directly purchase the item using real cash.

In any case, microtransactions are only possible because of the Internet. The Internet allows videogamers to connect to their financial accounts using their PC or even their dedicated video game consoles.

Micro-transactions are excellent inventions that truly change the landscape for sports gamers, in particular, and online gamers in general.